Fig. 7

Circ-hnRNPU inhibits gastric cancer progression by repressing NONO activity in vivo. a and b, Representative imagines (a), in vivo growth curve (b, left panel), and weight at the end points (b, right panel) of xenograft tumors formed by subcutaneous injection of AGS cells stably transfected with empty vector (mock) or NONO, and those co-transfected with circ-hnRNPU into the dorsal flanks of nude mice (n = 5 for each group). c, Representative images (upper panel) and quantification (lower panel) of immunohistochemical staining showing the expression of Ki-67 and CD31 (arrowheads) within xenograft tumors formed by hypodermic injection of AGS cells stably transfected with mock or NONO, and those co-transfected with circ-hnRNPU (n = 5 for each group). Scale bars: 50 μm. d and e, Western blot (d) and real-time qRT-PCR (e, normalized to β-actin) assays indicating the levels of NONO, GALNT2, GALNT6, MGAT1, and hnRNPU in xenograft tumors formed by hypodermic injection of AGS cells stably transfected with mock or NONO, and those co-transfected with circ-hnRNPU (n = 5 for each group). f, Representative images (upper panel), H&E staining (arrowheads), and quantification of lung metastatic colonization (middle panels), as well as Kaplan–Meier curves (lower panel) of nude mice treated with tail vein injection of AGS cells stably transfected with mock or NONO, and those co-transfected with circ-hnRNPU (n = 4 for each group). Scale bar: 100 μm. Analysis of variance or Student’s t test compared the difference in b, c, e, and f. Log-rank test for survival comparison in f. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. Data are shown as mean ± s.e.m. (error bars) in b, c, e, and f